My thoughts on all aspects of cycling. International and local racing, commuting, bicycle advocacy, and the occasional (ok, probably a lot of) ranting.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Reached The Beach

The crew right before. Evidently J is standing for all that is good and decent in the doping world. And I look very non-plussed for some reason...

Despite the terrible news about losing a rider in Grande Ronde our version of the ride was great.

It was a logistically tough ride to set up for ourselves. Because its a point to point ride making sure that everyone in our group had a way to get home was tough. Friday night I drove over the "Team Awesome" van which has the ability to carry seven people and bikes. The pour van was squatting mighty low as we left the parking lot after the ride. But I digress...

J, Adam and their families have RV trailers that they drove over Friday night to have as a home base of operations for the weekend. Which made a parking place for our van possible. Parking is something that is always a challenge at Reach the Beach. With out it we would have ended up parking a solid mile (Or more.)away from the finish. When you are tired and salty, riding or walking any kind of distance afterward has about as much appeal as sanding the sphincter of an alligator while in a phone booth. That is to say, none at all...

So Friday night I met them over in Pacific City. While I waited I went to the Pelican Brewery and had an adult libation, some food and watched the sun set with a lovely couple from Vancouver, B.C.. I thought them spooning me was a little odd. But I'm not one to question other countries customs...

Once the crew arrived and had set up their respective mobile dwelling devises we again had some more adult libations and some more food (I wasn't driving...). After feeling quite stuffed and happy J, Adam and myself headed back over to Salem to get some sleep. I didn't end up getting into bed until 1 am. Needless to say I was a touch crispy the next morning.

We all met up at Wallace Marine Park in West Salem to start. Long ago, there use to be an official start here but I guess Salem isn't to cool enough anymore.

Once everyone arrived and got their whohha in order we made our way our Wallace Rd. We only stopped one place between Salem and Amity. We had a few people that were done using their morning coffee and there is a nice little park with a bathroom. We also had a SAG wagon (Thanks Gordon!) that followed us where ever we went. I thought it was pretty awesome having our our team support vehicle. But after I couldn't get a "power bottle" (When you see pro's get sling shot up the road by their director.) up the hill before Amity I thought it was less cool...

Once we were in Amity we stopped at our favorite coffee shop and had the best espresso ever (At least the best I've ever had.) while other's got signed in at the official check point.

Adam was having his usual fluid supplement and the rest of us were having a good time.

The weather while not super sun was warming up and pretty decent. In fact I would later on add to my already stellar trucker tan. Good times....

Once we finished up there we headed to Sheridan along the flat lands in the western valley. The wind was pretty calm and we kept a good clip. Passing people with regularity. But certainly not killing it. In fact I would say that was a pleasant theme through out the day. No one went crazy. Even if someone went off the front for awhile they never went far and rolled back into the group without much fuss. It was really nice.

After Sheridan we rolled through Willamina (The bustling metropolis that it is.). It's a neat little town, but their roads and railroad tracks leave something to be desired. Pothole and cracks everywhere and three sets of tracks that could easily drop a newbie on their face.

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Log town USA you know...

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Unfortunately the road doesn't get any better once we end up on Hwy 18. Between the rumble strip and the constant flow of slower cyclists I did my best to stay between the white line and the rumble strip (About an 18" space.) It's probably not what they wanted me to do. But I felt much safer there than having Fred's and their friends push me off into the rumble strip with some regularity.

Once we passed that section and that terrible bridge where the accident happened (Please read yesterdays post.) we got off of Hwy 18 and the route is much more pleasant. And to be fair. That whole portion that I'm talking about is probably only 5-7 miles. I also don't believe there is an alternate route. So there you go...

The section between Grande Ronde and Hwy 101 is my favorite. Pretty smooth roads lots of twisting and turning, up and down. Tons of fun. In fact it's probably one of the best hunks of road that I've ridden (Although on a normal day the truck and RV traffic on that section are TERRIBLE.). There is a slight climb followed by a fun gradual descent. Then a much steeper short climb followed by another awesome gradual twisty descent.

Once we reached Hwy 101 it's really only a few miles the end. In years past the wind in this area has just been brutal. But we really lucked out and it was not bad at all.

When we finally rolled into the RV park we spent some time getting cleaned up and changed. Congratulatory beers were drunk and we went and ordered pizza from Doryland Pizza. Which is quite good. Took all our booty back to the RVs and had a grand old time.

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Many beers were drunk and many lies were told.

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We told JP to stop smoking but he just wouldn't...

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It was awesome.

Special thanks to J and Adam for hosting us. JP and Gordon for figuring out the SAG wagon and most of the awesome beer that I drank afterward. And of course my SSHW for coordinating the whole thing. You guys all rock.